The First Guitar Most Children Need
For most beginners, the right childrens guitar is a nylon-string classical in a half or three-quarter size, handed over already set up and paired with a clip-on tuner and a strap. Nylon is far kinder to soft fingertips than steel, a shorter neck lets a small hand reach the third fret without straining, and a properly adjusted instrument is the difference between daily practice and a guitar left under a bed.
What it is not is a toy, and it is not a full-size instrument bought for a child to grow into. A guitar with a body too deep for a child's arm to wrap around forces the fretting shoulder up and the wrist into a bend that hurts within ten minutes. We would rather size a child correctly twice than sell one guitar that never gets played.
How We Size A Child In Our Store
Height charts fail constantly, because children of the same age arrive with completely different arm lengths and hand spans. We size by reach and posture instead, which takes only a few minutes at the counter and settles the question for the family on the spot. Bringing the child in is worth the trip from anywhere in Perth.
The sizing process we use runs in four steps:
- Seat the child: Sitting upright on a stool with the guitar on the right thigh, the forearm should rest naturally over the lower bout without the shoulder lifting.
- Check the reach: The fretting hand should reach the first three frets with a relaxed thumb behind the neck. Fingers stretching flat or the elbow swinging outward means the scale is too long.
- Test the grip: The child presses a note at the first fret. If it takes visible effort, the instrument needs a setup or a smaller size.
- Confirm the size: Quarter sizes suit the smallest starters, halves and three-quarters cover most primary-school players, and a full size follows once the reach is comfortable.
Families who cannot get to Joondalup can measure at home by having the child sit with a broom handle across the thigh, then checking whether the fretting hand reaches comfortably past a point three finger-widths from the end. We are happy to talk it through on 08 9300 0033 before anything is ordered, and we ship Australia-wide.
Nylon, Steel And Electric Guitars Compared
The string material matters more than the brand at this stage. Nylon-string classicals from Valencia, Katoh, Sanchez and Martinez have wide, flat necks and low string tension, which is why they suit classical study and most first-time players. Steel-string acoustics sound brighter and suit children who want to strum songs, but they demand more grip strength.
Electrics are the lightest option under the fingers, since the strings are thin and the action can be set very low. The trade-off is that an electric needs an amplifier, and a small practice amp with a headphone socket keeps the household calm. Our electric guitar range covers the step up when a child outgrows a first instrument.
Setup Is Why Children Keep Playing
The abandoned childrens guitars that reach our repair bench commonly share the same fault, and it is not a broken part. The action is too high, meaning the strings sit so far above the frets that a child cannot press them down cleanly. The child concludes they have no talent, when the instrument was simply never adjusted after leaving the factory.
A setup lowers the action at the saddle and nut, straightens the neck relief and dresses anything sharp on the fret ends. On a beginner instrument this is the highest-value work available, and it is the single service we would recommend before spare strings, before a better case, before anything. We give free quotes in-store on services, repairs, re-strings and parts, and a guitar can be brought in on any of the seven days we are open. After twenty years servicing the Perth music community we can usually tell from the first chord whether a guitar is fighting its player.
Cheap is not the same as unplayable. The quality floor sits where a neck holds its adjustment and the tuners keep pitch through a lesson. Below that, no amount of bench work rescues an instrument, and repairs on a warped neck or a snapped headstock frequently cost more than the guitar is worth.
What The Package Includes And Excludes
Beginner packages generally cover the guitar, a gig bag, a strap, picks and a tuner. What they rarely include is the setup, a stand, a footstool for classical posture, or spare strings, and those omissions are the ones that surface in the first fortnight. Our guide to beginner acoustic packages sets out what we bundle and why.
Three additions earn their money almost immediately:
- A stand: A guitar on a stand in the bedroom gets picked up. A guitar zipped in a bag does not.
- A clip-on tuner: Children abandon instruments that sound wrong. Many tuners run on button or coin batteries, which must meet the mandatory safety and information standards the ACCC enforces for products containing button batteries, including a secured battery compartment.
- The right case: School transport is hard on instruments, and our comparison of an acoustic guitar hard case against a gig bag covers when the heavier option is worth it.
Left-handed children should be set up left-handed from the beginning. Left-handed models exist in fewer sizes, so it is worth calling 08 9300 0033 before making the trip rather than assuming a particular finish will be on the wall.
Trading Up And Buying Used
A childrens guitar is outgrown rather than worn out, and a child may move through two or three sizes before reaching a full-size instrument. That changes the maths on what a first instrument is worth spending, particularly when a family does not yet know whether the enthusiasm will last past the school term.
For families buying, our acoustics are grouped under $500 and under $1000, and most first instruments sit comfortably in the lower band. Spending the difference on a setup and lessons returns more than spending it on a more expensive guitar the child will outgrow anyway. Anything in either band can be sized at the counter before it goes home, or shipped Australia-wide.
Buying secondhand privately carries real risk, because neck and truss-rod damage is invisible in a photograph. In Western Australia, anyone whose business is buying, selling or exchanging second-hand goods must hold a licence under the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1994, issued by WA Police Force Licensing Services, which is a meaningful difference between a shop and a classified ad. New instruments also come with the automatic consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, so goods must be of acceptable quality and fit for purpose, with a repair, replacement or refund available when they are not.
Lessons Change What To Buy
A teacher's requirements should be settled before the guitar is chosen, because classical study, school ensembles and rock-oriented lessons pull toward different instruments. Tuition through the Joondalup School of Music can be arranged on 08 9300 0965, and the size and string type a particular student needs is worth settling on that call.
Anyone teaching music to under-18s in Western Australia, including online, is doing child-related work and must hold a Working with Children Check card under the Working with Children (Screening) Act 2004, administered by the Department of Communities. It is a fair question to ask any teacher, in a store or a private studio.
Apps have their place for keeping practice regular between lessons, but they cannot see a collapsed wrist or a thumb hooked over the neck. Those habits are quick to correct in the first months and slow to undo later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Starting Age And Hand Size
Hand size decides this more reliably than a birthday. Children who can reach the first three frets on a quarter-size neck without straining are usually ready, and that arrives at noticeably different ages for different children. Where the reach is not there yet, a ukulele bridges the gap well.
Cheap Beginner Guitars And The Quality Floor
An inexpensive instrument that holds its neck adjustment and stays in tune is entirely good enough for the first years. The failure point is not the price tag but the setup, and a very cheap guitar with unstable tuners frustrates a beginner regardless of how it looks.
Buying A Full Size To Grow Into
No. The posture a child adopts to manage an oversized body is the posture that causes wrist pain and early quitting. Correct sizing now, then a larger instrument when the reach changes, produces better players.
How Often Strings Need Replacing
For a practising student, roughly once a term is a sensible rhythm, sooner if strings look dull or sound lifeless. We stock guitar strings, and re-strings are done in-store.
When A Child Loses Interest
Pausing works better than selling. Interest frequently returns, and a switch of instrument, an electric instead of an acoustic or a move to drums, brings some students back faster than persistence with the original choice.
Trying A Guitar Before Buying
Yes, and we would encourage it. We are open 7 days at Unit 4/101 Winton Road, Joondalup, and we size the child, check the reach and set the instrument up before it leaves. For contact information or to arrange lessons, call 08 9300 0033.